The Bishop Ludden High School boys basketball team will be without starting forward Jack Rauch for its state "out bracket" regional game on Wednesday and perhaps longer if the Gaelic Knights advance.

Head coach Pat Donnelly said Monday during practice that Rauch, a 6-foot-6 junior, suffered a badly sprained ankle with a hematoma along with possible ligament damage during his team's 76-49 victory over Jamesville-DeWitt on Saturday in the Class A Section III championship game at the Carrier Dome.

Rauch, who averages nearly 12 points a game, is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Friday to see if there is ligament damage to his ankle. Donnelly said the delay of the test until Friday makes it almost a certainty Rauch could not play Saturday in a regional game should the Gaelic Knights advance by beating Massena Wednesday.

"It doesn't look good," Donnelly said of Rauch's situation. "It makes us a different team."

Bishop Ludden is No. 10 in the state sportswriters rankings in Class A and the No. 1 ranked team in The Post-Standard and Syracuse.com's final media poll of large schools. The Gaelic Knights meet Massena Wednesday in an "out-bracket" regional game to be played at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. Tipoff is 7 p.m. The winner advances to a regional game on Saturday at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.

Rauch is part of a big front line at Ludden that includes 6-6 Dan Kaigler and 6-5 Zach Walser. In addition to Rauch's scoring and rebounding, Donnelly said Rauch was adept at being able to look over the top of a defense or press to deliver passes to teammates.

Last year, Rauch broke his elbow in the team's first scrimmage. Now, this.

Donnelly said he is proud of the way Kevin Sierotnik and Jude DeSilvio picked up the slack in Rauch's absence against J-D and said they'll have to continue providing that kind of production in the playoffs.

"We're going to have to play quicker," Donnelly said.

The Gaelic Knights did a bit of that against Jamesville-DeWitt, a game in which Ludden made nine 3-pointers. Five of them were made by guard Kyle Hawk, who Donnelly said is just now getting well from a strained ligament in his shooting hand.

Donnelly said he thought he had a strong outside shooting team before the season, though it's taken until now to unleash that part of the team's game. With Ludden's outside shooting on target, that opened more inside space for his bigs or for a slasher like guard Ben Hackett to drive to the basket.

Still, the Gaelic Knights have a hole in their team.

"They wish (Rauch) was here," said Donnelly of the Gaelic Knights. "You go 19 or 21 games this year and he's been a piece to every game. It changes everything. Today's the first practice. There's a little bit of a void. As tough as it is for him, I feel bad for Jack. You get to this point of your career and can't play. He lost half a game at the Dome and won't be able to play in the first part of the regional.

"We’ve got be ready to play. I just talked to the team. You can't be looking back and be satisfied or looking ahead to something you may not get to. We'll try and keep their legs fresh and roll into Wednesday's game."